Democrats eager to return to power continue to face questions about their roles in hiding former President Joe Biden's mental acuity decline while in office.
Not only could that issue follow Democrats into the 2026 midterms, it likely will be a backdrop to the presidential race two years later.
"How are some of these national front-runners or people who are already barnstorming states like South Carolina or Iowa expected to look voters in the eyes with a straight face and say, 'Trust me, even though I got the 2024 election so terribly wrong?'" former Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-S.C., told Politico.
"There's no courage on display by any of the folks whose names are being circulated right now."
Biden had been atop the Democratic Party's national ticket until a disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump convinced party leaders to replace the president as the nominee and force him to drop out.
In recent weeks, lengthy newspaper and magazine stories and books have focused on Biden's decline and how Democrats and the mainstream media failed to report on the reality.
Even CNN anchors this week asked House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., whether Democrats can be trusted following the release of a new book that claims Biden's deterioration was so severe in 2023 and 2024 that advisers privately discussed the possibility of him using a wheelchair if he won reelection.
On Wednesday night, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., posted on X that it's "obvious" now that Biden was in no condition to run for reelection, adding that Democrats need to be "honest" about the party's mistake.
Democrats considered to be possible presidential contenders in 2028 have, to varying degrees, discussed Biden's condition. Many of them had defended the former president before his infamous debate effort.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., recently said there was "no doubt" about Biden's cognitive decline, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg conceded the party "maybe" would have done better without Biden as the nominee, Politico reported Friday.
After Murphy, during an interview, admitted to Biden's diminishing capabilities, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., asked "This you?" on X, citing the senator's condemnation of a Wall Street Journal report on the former president's decline.
Pennsylvania Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro recently said he privately had raised concerns with Biden at the time.
A new book entitled "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again" reported Shapiro told Biden he was worried after his debate.
"I can tell you that I was very frank with the president during his campaign about what I saw were some of the shortcomings," Shapiro told Politico. "I was very honest with him in a private setting about that."
Before Biden dropped out, though, Shapiro publicly defended the then-president.
Govs. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich., and J.B. Pritzker, D-Ill., and Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., all overlooked Biden's decline and/or said they dealt with him infrequently, and now generally plead to look ahead, not back.